As much as spirits makers and spirits aficionados will tell you that an age statement isn’t the most important indication of quality, it’s the releases of older liquid that still get the most attention. We live in an era where everything is more expensive—never mind 60 year-old scotch. There’s been some backlash in the drinks media about ultra rare, very old expressions of spirits, most of which are released in such miniscule quantities accompanied by impenetrable allocations for them that the only people who can get their hands on them, let alone afford them, are billionaire collectors. 

Every once in a while, we spirits writers get to taste them, but then who would we really be writing these articles for? Are we just showing off that we got to sip something most people don’t have access to?  

There are exceptions, especially in the business of independent bottling. For those unfamiliar, these are companies who select specific casks of spirits and sell them in their own packaging with their name and information about the liquid. For decades, it’s been a huge business in Scotland, and a way for consumers to enjoy grain and single malt scotch whiskies from some distilleries that either exclusively have their liquid in a blend otherwise (like in a Johnny Walker), or don’t have their own bottlings on shelves for other reasons—sometimes even because they stopped producing ages ago but the barrels are still in a warehouse. In recent years, the business has grown well beyond the scotch whisky industry.